Baker gets abatement to fix under-used building

Monday

WOOSTER — This time around, a tax incentive for a longtime local developer went smoother than the last time around.

A tax abatement for Jerry Baker to renovate and rehabilitate the former Snap-On (or Bell and Howell building for some) was unanimously approved, 6-0, by City Council Sept. 18.

Jon Ansel, at-large council member, recused himself from the discussion.

The only caveat was when Mark Cavin, Ward 1 council member, asked Mayor Robert Breneman and the city administration to offer assurances it would hold Baker accountable, should the plans not materialize, Breneman assured council it would.

The legislative body passed Baker’s request for a 10-year, 75 percent abatement under the Enterprise Zone program to fix a building at 1909 Old Mansfield Road.

The building was purchased by the Wooster Growth Corporation in 2011 in order to provide a world headquarters for ABS Materials. But ABS has recently relocated much of its staff to the Houston area and decided it does not need the full 90,000 square-foot building.

Instead, ABS will maintain a lease at the building to keep its headquarters in Wooster.

And Baker is rebuilding it for a manufacturing company.

"We have a very strong potential for someone out of the city," Baker said, bringing at least 30 jobs, but possibly more with it.

Wooster Growth also recently sold the building to Baker, but made only enough money to close out its loan, said Finance Director Andrei Dordea.

In the application for the abatement, Baker said the new payroll from those jobs approaches $900,000.

Council rejected Baker’s last abatement request in 2015, when he was seeking tax incentives to construct a warehouse facility off Long Road. Instead, he found a new site just outside of Wooster on Daly Drive and obtained an abatement from the Wayne County commissioners.

Council members have previously taken Baker to task after his project to bring Stonecraft — an Apple Creek company that made decorative products for homes and businesses — fell apart with the decline in the housing market.

Yet for this abatement, council members were at ease with Baker’s latest endeavor.